


Once Upon A Time

by gingerfic



Series: An Alphabet of Samcedes Stories [15]
Category: Glee
Genre: Adventure, Bravery, Castles, Dragons, F/M, Fantasy, Knights - Freeform, Magic, Princesses, Rescues, Self-Discovery, fairy tale, samcedes - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-25
Updated: 2015-10-25
Packaged: 2018-04-28 03:50:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5076700
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gingerfic/pseuds/gingerfic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the spirit of classic storytelling, I present a fairy tale. Warnings for wildly impossible stuff happening and everyone accepting it as normal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Once Upon A Time

**Author's Note:**

> This story has been approved by my eight year old, who keeps asking me to retell it. My five year old fell asleep so I don't know if he approves or not but apparently it makes a good bedtime story.

Once upon a time, long ago and far away, there was a kingdom with many knights. The knights were all good and brave and strong, as knights are supposed to be. The tallest was Sir Finn; the strongest was Sir Puck; the bravest was Sir Kurt; the quickest was Sir Mike; and the wisest was Sir Arthur. 

The knights were all friends, and even when they competed with each other they still always knew that if an enemy came they would face it together. Sir Arthur had been injured in battle long ago and now had to be carried in a chair, but had spent his time since then devoted to learning and everyone respected his advice because of it. Sir Finn was usually the leader, even though no one was really sure why. Sir Kurt said it was because he was so tall that everyone had to look up to him. Sir Mike chuckled when Sir Kurt said that, and Sir Arthur laughed so hard he fell off of his chair. Sir Puck didn’t get what was so funny.

The only knight who felt left out was Sir Sam. He was younger than the others, and by the time he became a knight he felt like all the best things were taken. He could not be as tall as Sir Finn, as strong as Sir Puck, as brave as Sir Kurt, as quick as Sir Mike, or as wise as Sir Arthur. What was left for him?

So Sir Sam sulked around the castle. He would go to knight practice and play the battle games and participate in competitions with the other knights, but he never won anything, and he never felt very good about himself. 

"It's ok if you don't win," Sir Finn told him. "I'm sort of clumsy and I fall sometimes. I may be big, but I could never win a race against Sir Mike. And remember when that Karofkitroll was attacking those villages last autumn? I was so scared of it that I actually made up another quest to go somewhere else while Sir Kurt, Sir Mike, and Sir Puck took care of it."

"You didn't!" Sir Sam was astonished. "I was just a squire then but I was there. I even got injured."

"I know," Sir Finn continued. "I felt terrible later, especially when I heard how many of you got hurt before Sir Kurt finally killed the monster. That's why we call him the bravest now."

"And I'm just the youngest," Sir Sam complained. "There's nothing special about that."

You will find what makes you special someday," Sir Finn assured him. "Everyone does. Maybe it will be soon."

Sir Sam hoped it would be very very soon.  He was tired of being not special. 

 

* * *

One day word arrived at the castle that a dragon had been sighted in the north part of the country. Quickly the knights prepared to ride out in search of it so that they could kill it and save the kingdom. Sir Finn, Sir Puck, Sir Kurt, Sir Mike, and Sir Sam all got their armor and their horses and prepared to ride out.

“Remember that dragons are magical creatures,” Sir Arthur yelled after them as they rode away. “And with magic, things are usually not what they seem.”

The five knights rode north for two days until they reached the area where the dragon was. They talked with the villagers in the area to find out where to go. The villagers told them that the dragon had been stealing and eating livestock and ripping up fields of crops, and that the dragon always returned to the hills beyond the forest that bordered the town. 

“That’s where we go, then,” Sir Finn declared. 

And so they did.

 

* * *

After several hours of riding through the forest they reached the hills, and almost immediately they discovered an old, abandoned castle. It was not in ruins yet, but it was definitely starting to fall apart, and large stones lay scattered about the hillside surrounding it. The sun was setting, but coming from inside the castle they could see a warm orange glow, and they knew that the dragon was in there.

They decided to camp on the edge of the forest for the night, and as they ate dinner they tried to come up with a plan for how to go after the dragon. Sir Puck and Sir Finn thought they should just charge in, but Sir Mike reminded them of what Sir Arthur had said about dragons being magical, and suggested that it might be better to look for a way to sneak in without being seen. Sir Kurt said that he didn’t really care what they did so long as it didn’t involve getting toasted in his armor. Sir Sam sat on the edge of the group and felt useless. He didn’t have any ideas. He decided to take a walk while the others argued.

As Sir Sam walked along the edge of the forest he heard a voice singing. At first he thought it was his imagination, or maybe the wind in the trees, but the singing didn’t stop, and the leaves on the trees were still so he knew there wasn’t wind. Sir Sam was curious now. The singing was beautiful and he wanted to hear more of it. He looked for fairies, but couldn’t find any. He looked for a stream that might have mermaids, but he didn’t find that either. Finally he closed his eyes and tried to follow the sound to discover where it was coming from. After a short time of stumbling around (because walking in the forest or on hills with your eyes closed is not actually a very good idea), Sir Sam found the answer: the singing was coming from inside the castle.

He ran back to the other knights. 

“Everyone, listen, I have new information and it changes everything!” he announced breathlessly.

Sir Finn, Sir Puck, Sir Kurt, and Sir Mike all looked at him and waited for him to explain.

“There is a girl in the castle with the dragon. I heard her singing.”

“What if it’s a princess?” Sir Puck exclaimed.

“I’m sure the dragon is holding her prisoner,” Sir Finn worried. 

“It’s even more important for us to get in there now,” Sir Mike agreed.

So the five knights huddled close around the fire and came up with a plan for how they would get into the castle, slay the dragon, and save the princess… Or the girl who was probably a princess.

 

* * *

Bright and early the next morning Sir Sam, Sir Finn, Sir Kurt, Sir Puck, and Sir Mike crept up to the castle and scouted the perimeter. They found that there were two gates going inside, the large one in front, and a very small one on the side. The wood of the small door was partly rotted, and with some careful pushing and pulling and very quiet grunting, the knights were able to break it open and sneak inside the castle.

They decided to split up so that they would have a better chance of figuring out where the princess was (if she was a princess), and also of scouting the area where the dragon was so that they could figure out the best angles for attacking it.

The knights knew that they needed to protect the village and the people in it, so they were willing to kill the dragon. But even when killing a monster they didn’t want to make it suffer if they didn’t have to, so they were all hoping that they could find a way to kill it quickly. 

Finding the dragon was easy. It was spread out in the courtyard, filling the entire space from the keep to the gate, and, thankfully, sleeping. Finding the singing princess turned out to be much harder. Sir Finn, Sir Puck, Sir Kurt, and Sir Mike left Sir Sam to watch the dragon while they went searching for the princess in the high towers of the castle. Sir Sam’s job was to whistle if it looked like the dragon was starting to wake up, so that they could all come back down to battle with it.

While the other knights searched, Sir Sam sat on his helmet and stared at the dragon. He knew it was a terrible beast, but it was actually quite beautiful--in a terrible sort of way. It was covered in bronze-colored scales, with broad golden wings folded neatly along its body. Its head was nearly the size of his horse, and he knew that it could swallow him in one gulp, so he stayed as close to the tail as he dared. Of course the tail was dangerous in its own way, because even though the dragon was sleeping, its tail was weaving lazily back and forth across the ground, and sometimes it lifted a bit into the air before dropping back down with a thud. Sir Sam was afraid that the dragon might accidentally wake itself up with one of those thuds, and that, in fact, was exactly what happened. 

Sir Sam, himself, had begun to get a little drowsy with watching the dragon’s tail in its hypnotic motions, so when the dragon’s head snapped up so did Sir Sam’s. He clamped his hand over his own mouth to keep himself from making a noise as the dragon yawned and stretched, pushing one hind leg along the floor so close to Sir Sam that he had to bite his own finger to keep from screaming.

At that moment, Sir Sam realized the flaw in the knight’s plan. It wasn’t necessarily a flaw in the plan so much as it was a flaw in where Sir Sam had been sitting relative to the dragon. Because now if he made a noise or moved anywhere the dragon would be able to see him, hear him, and grab him before he had a chance of escaping. So instead of whistling for the other knights, Sir Sam sat as still and quietly as he could, and hoped that maybe the dragon would roll over and go back to sleep.

The dragon did not roll over and go back to sleep. Instead it started picking at its teeth with one of its long, curved claws. Then it rolled onto its side and began to scratch at its belly.

Dragons are soft on their bellies, as everyone knows, and Sir Sam realized that this could be his perfect opportunity to kill the dragon quickly and cleanly. Carefully he began to slide his sword out of the scabbard, but then he saw something that made him stop.

On the side of the dragon’s belly, where it was scratching, were long, red marks. They looked like a rash or burn, and if Sir Sam had seen similar marks on another animal, or on a person, he would have immediately offered help. But this was a dragon, and dragons were enemies. If the dragon were injured that should make it easier for Sir Sam to slay it quickly. In spite of the logic, Sir Sam still couldn’t make himself draw his sword. Instead he let it slip back down into the scabbard, where it settled with a soft clink.

A soft clink, but one the dragon could hear. Because in a moment the dragon was on its feet and had turned around, bringing its face right next to where Sir Sam was standing and chuffing hot breath on him.

Later Sir Sam would say that he had been frozen in fear, but in the moment freezing was the furthest thing from his mind. The dragon may have been merely exhaling, but its breath was so hot that Sir Sam feared he would be burned by his his heated armor. Instinctively he started taking it off. If he was going to die by dragon today he at least wanted it to be in battle, not by getting baked in his own armor. 

The dragon tipped its head to the side, staring at him as he unlaced the ties on his armor. It backed up a little as Sir Sam set his arm guards on the ground next to his helmet, and seemed to be watching him intently. After a few moments it crossed its front claws and laid its chin on them, continuing to stare as Sir Sam removed his breastplate and put it with the rest of his armor.

Sir Sam watched the dragon watching him, and felt less afraid. It could have grabbed him and eaten him by now, but it hadn’t. In fact, it had moved away. Without thinking, Sir Sam held out his hand and stepped forward. 

The dragon didn’t move, even when Sir Sam reached out and almost touched the side of its golden face. Instead it slowly blinked its large, brown eyes, and continued watching him. Sir Sam remembered the injury he had seen, and in spite of everything he had ever been told about dragons, he felt sorry for this dragon. It wasn’t hurting him, even though it could. In fact, he was pretty sure that it would let him just walk away if he tried to. So Sir Sam did something that went against all his training: he walked around the dragon’s huge body to where he had seen the injury, reached into the little medical pouch that he always wore, and poured some healing salve onto his fingers.

“Be still, this might sting a little but it will help,” he murmured encouragingly, hoping that the dragon could understand him. Then he carefully reached out and touched the dragon.

Sir Sam was blinded by a flash of light, and as his vision returned--still fuzzy and sparkling on the edges--he was immediately aware that the dragon was gone. Instead, laying on the ground in front of him was a young woman with large brown eyes and a dark bronze complexion. She was just starting to sit up when Sir Finn, Sir Puck, Sir Kurt, and Sir Mike burst into the courtyard behind him, all talking at once.

“Where is the dragon?”

“Did you kill it already?”

“You found the princess!”

Sir Sam just stared back and forth between his friends and the girl. She squinted up at them as the sunshine reflected off their armor and got in her eyes. 

“I’m not quite sure what happened…” Sir Sam started to say, but the girl held her finger up to stop him.

“This knight saved me from a curse,” she explained. “I was cursed to the form of a dragon many years ago, and the curse could not be broken until someone showed me kindness. At first I tried to simply talk to people, and ask for their help, but they always ran away in fear before I could finish explaining. So I came to live here, where I wouldn’t bother anyone.”

Sir Kurt snorted. “Not bothering anyone,” he muttered.

“But you were taking livestock and tearing up potato fields,” Sir Finn blurted.

“The villagers were terrified of you,” Sir Puck added.

Sir Mike nodded with a serious expression on his face.

“A girl has to eat!” the princess said. “And potatoes are amazing when you smash them up and toast them a bit! I felt bad that everyone was scared of me but there wasn’t anything I could do about that. I made sure I never hurt anyone, and I only took what I needed for food.”

“What about the singing I heard last night?” Sir Sam asked softly. “Was that you? Even as a dragon?”

She smiled at him, rising to her feet and walking over to them now. “Yes. I always had my voice.”

“So why didn’t you just talk to me just now, instead of staring at me? I was afraid you might eat me.”

She giggled, and even that sound was musical. “Every time I’ve talked to someone they have run away screaming. I didn’t want you to run away.” She smiled and looked back and forth around the group before adding, “and you didn’t!”

“No I didn’t,” Sir Sam agreed. “It looked like you were hurt. I wanted to help.”

“And you did,” the princess said with another smile. “Even more than you meant to! You didn’t just help my wound, you broke my curse!”

 

* * *

The five knights and the princess returned to the castle and eventually Sir Sam and the princess were married. It wasn’t just true love that Sir Sam found on that adventure though: he also found what made him special, and that was kindness. And forever after, Sir Sam was known as the kindest of all the knights.

And they lived happily ever after.


End file.
